In the New Testament sense everything that is to be said about the man who receives the Holy Spirit and is constrained and filled by the Holy Spirit is an eschatological statement. Eschatological does not mean in an inexact or unreal sense but in relation to the ἔσχατον, i.e., to that which from our standpoint and for our experience and thought has still to come, to the eternal reality of the divine fulfilment and consummation. It is precisely eschatological statements and these alone, i.e., statements which relate to this eternal reality, that can claim real and proper meaning as statements about temporal relations. For what can be more real and proper for man than truth in this particular relation?
The New Testament speaks eschatologically when it speaks of man's being called, reconciled, justified, sanctified and redeemed. In speaking thus it speaks really and properly. One has to realise that God is the measure of all that is real and proper, that eternity comes first and then time, and therefore the future comes first and then the present….
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics I.1, 464
3 comments:
This is the toughest piece of meat I have chewed on in awhile. What is your boy saying?
"One has to realise that God is the measure of all that is real and proper, that eternity comes first and then time, and therefore the future comes first and then the present…"
the "comes first" phrase trips me up. it seems that he's mixing meaning of words. if "comes first" is a statement on priority of importance, then it makes sense, but he seems to be using it in the context of chronology, which doesn't make sense to me.
Barth is pointing out that eternity is first in God's time, and is therefore the ultimate point of reference for determining what is true and real. This means that we need to think of the eschatological truths of the Bible as descriptions of reality as it really is, now.
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